Frederik went to Greenland last friday to represent the DRF at the funeral of the Greenlandic politician, Jonathan Motzfeldt. Who, despite personal issues, has been a key figure in the politics in Greenland for many years.
Frederik has met Jonathan Motzfeldt many times.

And this Friday, at 13.00, on a rainy and windy day with the temperature just above freezing, Frederik stood beside the chairman of the Greenlandic Parliament, Kuupik Kleist, who wept inconsolably.
The funeral took place from Hans Egede (*) Church in Nuuk. (**) At the same time Queen Margrethe attended a memorial service in Copenhagen.
It was a solomn affair and Frederik, who had to wear a coat over his Greenlandic gala-anorak also cried.

(*) Hans Egede was a Danish priest who went to Greenland in the 1700's and he is credited for being instrumental in Christening the Greenlanders. The church has an important role in Greenland.

(**) Nuuk is the capital, located on the western coast of Greenland. Western Greenland is much more densely populated (the population of Greenland amounts to 55-60.000 in total) than Eastern Greenland, due to the Gulf Stream. While you can find towns and villages all along the west coast. There are only a few villages, a handful of scientific stations and Sirius patrols along the entire east coat.

He got the title because he threw out the ancient heating system in the newly renovated palais and exchanged it with a central heating system, where the heat now comes from a heating plant somewhere.

For the consumer central heating or should I say district heating may not be the cheapest option, but for the society as a whole it is more economically and environmentally sound rather than a lot of individual boilers.
Now, Frederik is in the pretty unique situation that he has to heat up an entire palais and he chose central heating, thus creating more awareness to that option. - I personally had no idea how the palais was heated. Now I know but it's still too expensive to exchange our boiler for central heating.

As a part of the renovation the heating was not only switched to an outside supplier, Copenhagen Energy, but the palais itself was modernized in regards to utillizing heat, and thus energy, in the most efficient way possible. (Hardly a novelty in itself, as anyone who renovate their homes do something similar. Anything else would be way too expensive, considering the fuel prizes). F&M now save 17% of their heat consumption in their new palais.

First lieutenant Anne-Cathrine Riebinitzsky, who her work with local women in Afghanistan.
Professional private Jesper Aagaard Nielsen, who lost both his legs in Afghanistan.
Major/cunsultant Finn Warburg, for his work in helping wounded soldiers.

Crown Prince Frederik handed out the grants and took the three recipients on a guided tour of the new palais. After that there was lunch, which Jesper Aagaard Nielsen could not attend as he was to go to a sports seminar for wounded soldiers.

Also present was Nikolai Moltke-Leth, a former army sepcial forces soldier, who is now instrumental in the Foundation.

Crown Prince Frederik has once more visited the troops in Afghanistan.
His visit to the Helmand province has been kept secret for security
reasons. The ministers of defence and foreign affairs have been with
him.

Apart from naturally encouraging the troops, the purpose of the visit was also to get a first hand assessment of the training of the local Afghan police. Which unfortunately isn't going well.
The police is plaqued with problems stemming from low morale, low pay, poor equipment, corruption, low status, very inadequate training and not least widespread drug abuse.

Afghan troops are now embedded with the Danish battallion and things are slowly improving. But the police....

The Danish battallion has been stationed in the Helmand province for several years and according to the regular updates from the Army Operation Command (HOK) there are daily clashes with the Taliban.
So far 39 Danish soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan.
The current government do not plan to withdraw Danish combat troops until 2014.

Quote:

Originally Posted by iceflower

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Crown Prince Frederik has once more visited the troops in Afghanistan.
His visit to the Helmand province has been kept secret for security
reasons. The ministers of defence and foreign affairs have been with
him.

Most of the pictures released so far are of his visit to the tank squadron from the Jutland Dragoon Regiment, which most of the time operate away from the Danish main force, which is located in the noth of the Helmand province, in the Upper Geresk Valley and in the town of Geresk.

The tanks operate mainly in support of Afghan, British and American troops. And the operate mainly further south, where the terrain is better suited for tanks. (*)

The darkhaired lady often seen next to Frederik is Minister of Defence, Gitte Lillelund Bech.

They also visited a YMCA in Camp Price. In this camp, Frederik gave a very personal speech and thanked the soldiers on behalf of himself and the DRF.
After that he in the Defence Minister strolled about in the camp and chatted informally with the soldiers.

- And in case you are wondering, Frederik, and the minister's security was provided by FET agents. Not PET officers. - You will see them in the video clip.

ADDED: Two more pics of Frederik mingling with the soldiers: http://forsvaret.dk/FKO/Nyt%20og%20P...ghanistan.aspx
You will notice that a number of sodliers have beards. Danish soldiers are encouraged to grow beards, as beards are seen as a sign of maturity in rural Afghanistan.

(*) DK is one of the few countries which have deployed main battle tanks to Afghanistan, indeed as well as tracked IVF's Infantry Fighting Vehicles.
The reason is somewhat peculiar. The politicians are more than eager to ship whatever the material the army wants, and material the army doesn't want as well! The reason is of course that they are fearful of high casualties because the soldiers did not have the best protection possible.
The relatively high casualty rate (DK has the highest number of fatalities per capity of the coalition forces) is accepted by the population by and large, as long as the soldiers also get the best possible equipment. So the politicians overbid each other in that respect.

Recently there has been a sort of reality show on DR1, which has taken place in an immigrant ghetto. In Vollsmose in Odense. A choir was established and locals were invited to join. Being a member of a choir requires not only talent, but also hard, work, discipline and dedication. And the porpuse was to try to make the locals think outside the box and do something completely different. For those who made it, it ended with a show performance in Odense Concert Hall, where among others Frederik was present.

Frederik met the members of the choir afterwards and they are almost exclusively immigrants.

30 year old Hossam said: "Frederik is game/hearty. And not at all snobbish. It's lovely to sense that eventhough he is not on your level, he's sweet. A nice guy. And he smiles all the time.
- The best thing about Frederik is that he showed that what we did was super-cool. Just the way he walked into the room and came over and greeted us, told us that he thinks we are okay. He will be a super king".

Hassem also asked Frederik: "Now you (informal you) have visited us. When are we going to visit you"? Frederik replied: "The doors at Amalienborg are always open". (*)

17 year old Riyad said: "It was really cool to meet him, he is very nice. Suddenly he stood in the middle of the room after the concert and said: Wouldn't you (informal you) like to greet me, and then a picture was taken of all of us. Afterwards we chatted a bit". Riyad is normally a rapper.

20 year old Mussa said: "It was really great and afterwards a picture was taken of us, where I'm standing with my arm around him, I'd never believed that possible. I asked him: Did you (informal you) like the concert? And Frederik said: I did. It's been cool to be a part of the chior...".

Altogether there were 35 members of this choir, many of whom have never singed before.

- A good example of how talented Frederik is in dealing with people personally.

(*) True in the sense that anyone can in theory have an audience with the Monarch at the almost weekly public audiences.